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Posted by Android users take note: we’ve updated the OANDA fxTrade mobile app for smartphones and tablets.
We’ve been adding new features to our Android app over the last few months – you may have noticed streaming news became available in the most recent update – and we’ll continue to enhance the app on this platform in the future.
In this latest release, we’ve addressed many important customer requests. Perhaps the biggest feature added that our customers have been requesting are indicators, also known as overlays. These provide our users with the ability to add important metrics to the real-time forex chart view such as Bollinger Bands, Moving Averages, and Pivot Points. In all, a total of eight overlays are now available in this latest update.
Other enhanced features include new menu navigation using a sliding “gutter” that allow people to swipe in and out the main menu from the left hand side. We’ve expanded the real-time forex chart itself to present a full screen view whereas previously it was limited to a half-screen size.
Better yet, in addition to adding a full-screen chart view, we’ve also included more timeframes for users to drilldown with. For instance, accessing a four-hour chart view was a major feature request by our mobile Android customers as previously our charts on Android weren’t interactive at all.
Other notable improvements include the ability to change indicator line colors, and the option to display open trades and open orders on the chart, as well as the means to modify/close orders by simply touching on them. We’ve also added the ability to see more historical chart data. Moreover, a new trade entry can be initiated via “point and shoot” (read: touching on the price in the right axis on the charts screen). I should add there are also fixes included for various minor bugs including addressing an issue with scrolling news on devices running Android 4.0 and higher.
On the subject of mobile computing generally, there are a couple of trends I’ve noticed over the past 12-18 months that are worth mentioning. First, an increasing number of our customers are downloading and using OANDA’s mobile apps regardless of platform.
Our customers tend to login to the fxTrade platform on a desktop first, get into their positions, and then switch to mobile devices to monitor things throughout the day. When they do, they’re checking to see where their trading positions are at, to see where their stop-loss and take-profit triggers are at, and/or to get out of a position quickly if they feel they must. Second, our users are also initiating new trades while mobile and this too is on the rise. The newly included chart indicators make this easy to do as users can now readily identify trends to help them make that call.
We welcome any and all feedback. In fact, within the Android fxTrade app you can contact OANDA’s customer service team directly via email by clicking on “Contact” in the main menu.
For iOS users, there’ll be an update issued to OANDA’s fxTrade mobile app running on iPhones and iPads before the end of 2012. It too will feature new charting features and overlays. For iPad users specifically, expect a complete overhaul of the OANDA fxTrade iPad app in early 2013. We’re in the process of redesigning the iPad user interface to make it consistent with the iPhone app.
For other mobile platforms, namely BlackBerry and Windows 8, we’re working on a new solution for those mobile users that will be also available in 2013.
Mobile will continue to be a major focus of our development efforts. We’re witness to a large percentage of traders that are increasingly using mobile devices to access fxTrade and we want to ensure they have the requisite mobile apps they need to trade forex with OANDA. We view our mobile development efforts not as a replacement, but as a strong complement, to our existing desktop- and web-based platforms.
In 2013, we intend to expand our MetaTrader 4 mobile coverage. More on that development in a future post.
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